If I called one of my black customers (hell, if I said it to a white customer) a 'nappy headed ho', I'd be out of a job so fast heads would spin. Now, I'm no chiorboy and I've used my share of ethnic slurs, but I don't have a million viewers watching my show every day (and I certainly wouldn't say something like that here, not because it would piss people off, I go out of my way to do that every day, but because it's wrong). My buddy Nunzio will always be "The Screamin' Guinea" to me, but he's an old friend (I wouldn't call Nunzio's wife "Mrs. Screamin' Guinea"). I'm the "Crazy Kraut" to him, been that way for 15 years (but he wouldn't call my wife a "Kraut Lovin' Heeb"). There's my friend "Black Bill" as I refer to him to those who also know my friend "White Bill". (I know 2 Gordons too, the one who passed away a couple years ago I call "Dead Gordon" and my esteemed colleague here is "Live Gordon" ... heh.)
What crackers like Imus don't get is using an ethnic slur to put down an entire race of people, or using one in anger toward a person of said ethnicity, is just wrong. Just because some blacks use the word 'niggaz' as a familiar greeting doesn't mean it's okay for someone outside that familiarity to use it. I would never say to my friend Black Bill, "yo nigga, wasup?" Nor would I accept someone I didn't know using an ethnic slur to describe me or my heritage because I don't know their intent, regardless of their claims to be 'funny'.
To denigrate a whole race of people, to denigrate what the women of Rutgers have accomplished, both on the court and academically, is wrong. I'm sure Imus doesn't know any of them personally and it's not funny. I'm sure every one of the Rutgers women have a higher IQ than the old drug addict. It wouldn't be funny coming from Al Sharpton, Tom Joyner, Ed Gordon, or Tavis Smiley, let alone some dried up rich old white man.
Imus has to feel some pain and being suspended for 2 weeks, not being able to hear himself talk for a fortnight, not being able to fellate McCain and Lieberman, is no punishment. Time for him to retire, at least have his show canceled from MSNBC. It might improve my opinion of MSNBC. In my book, the only thing they have going for them is Olbermann.
And just a case in point: My big mouth got me into trouble with the Korean letter carrier. I was doing an inspection on my friend's antique Mercedes, safety only, $10. When he asked me how much I said, in my best 'Mama-san' impersonation (I do a great 'Geraldine' too), "Ah, ten dollah, GI, love you long time." (I was being 'funny'.) I turn around, after seeing the look on my buddy's face, to see the Korean mail lady giving me the eeevilest look. I've since apologized a hundred times (even in Korean), and I really feel bad, and I know she's never forgiven me for it. It seriously bothers me but I'll have to live with it. Once said, words are impossible to take back. Let that be a lesson to yas.
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